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So I am making good progress with my parents painting, the lake portion is done now and all I have left are the trees, houses and the sky across the lake to finish. I am feeling pretty good about it now, like I am on a roll with it. I took a much needed break from it over the 4th of July weekend, I should have taken a break earlier, it was actually a long weekend for me, I didn’t come back to the painting for a whole week. I even tried not to think about. I was most definitely putting way to much pressure on myself and I just needed to relax myself. I think I did that with the long break I took.

I had the best time with my friends and family this holiday. We all spent the entire holiday outside in the sun having BBQS, corn hole tournaments, tubing, swimming and just plain old having a great time. We ate garbage food, stayed up late enjoying the bonfires and had our own fireworks show the nights that the lake association didn’t have theirs. Won then the lake had theirs we went out the boat and watched them up close. It was awesome. Just what I needed to be able to take my mind off of the painting.

I had to go back to work after having just four days off but I want back to my parents house for the remainder of time that my brother and his family were in town. They live in another state so I tried to spend as much time over there as possible. They were there for a week so for I week I concentrated on nothing else except having a good time. But now, it’s time to go back to reality, that means back to work and back to the painting.

I went back to the painting with a force I didn’t really know I had, I spent every moment possible working on it, within a week I had completed over half of what I had left and it looks amazing. I know that my parents are going to love this. I am proud of what I have already completed and it totally shows in the work.

Since the painting isn’t fully complete yet and I am spending as much time as I can on it, I am going to cut this post short and get back to the painting, I’ll post again once I am finished!

So I have been working on this project now for some months and I am feeling like I am never going to be done with. My parents have asked me to paint a portrait of their yard and the lake that they live on. It would be a perspective from the door of the their house and everything in view from there. They asked if I could do it with either the sunrise or the sunset. Since I am a morning person I chose the sunrise. The view will include their front porch and yard with the fire pit, the dock and boat and of course all the trees and other houses that can be seen from their house.

At first I took many pictures, I would wake up early and head over to their house and snap some pictures just to get some inspiration. It’s good to have different lighting and shadows because each day is different even though I went out at about the same time each day. It helps to get a feel of what the morning looks like, this way I can give them the best picture. After I took pictures I would just go out there in the mornings and get a feel of how I wanted to have the picture set. This was a two week process, there are many things that will be in this picture that I needed to cement in my brain what the landscape looks like. I would study the pictures and make rough drafts on paper just so I could get a feel for the layout.

I have started painting on the canvas now, I have a basic drawing going, I have even started putting color and shades in. I guess the hardest part is that this is for my parents and I am having the hardest time being satisfied with it. I want it to be absolutely perfect and I am so hard on myself that I can’t make the simplest decisions. I keep analyzing everything over and over and seem to not be able to pick what direction I want to go in. I know that no matter what I do they will love it because they are my parents and they will never say that they hate it but I can always tell when they actually truly love something and I want that reaction when I finally give this to them.

I have a good start on it, I have the their lawn area pretty much done and I have the dock, boat and surrounding area half way done and the rest is just a basic sketch at the moment. I am hoping to be done by their anniversary which is in about three months. It should not be a problem under normal circumstances but with the way things are going that may be a deadline I cannot make! I’ll keep you updated,

My husband and I decided to take a vacation to Fayetteville, NC. There is a fair amount of fine art in this beautiful city, among other things such as great dining and a fantastic culture. This charming southern city is full of beautiful scenery and people. I do not know why but the people in the southern part of our country are so welcoming, they make you feel like they have known you all their lives.

We arrived at night so we just ordered room service from our hotel and just relaxed so we would be on top of our game for the next week. The next morning after we had showered, eaten breakfast and walked our the door we visited the Crafts Council or Arts Council which sits on Hay St in downtown Fayetteville. Here they showcase pieces from local artists and artists from all over the country. They will take any piece from an artist to showcase in their exhibits, they are a place that encourages everything art. This building was built in the early 1900s and was originally used as the post office. When the Art Council took over in the 1970s they left it as it was to preserve the culture of the past. This is another reason why the Art Council is beneficial to society.

From there we went to the Shirking Musician Studio and Workshop. This is a music studio that is highly rated in the music industrany, they also have art that you are able to buy. It is in a adorable old home and has really great pieces of art as really good prices. This is one place where you can find that unknown artist and make their day buy one of their pieces. After that we found a little cafe and had lunch, then my husband was done with the art spots so the rest of the day was spent to things that he wanted to check out, I won’t bore you with that stuff!

The next we rented a car and drove to Wilmington, NC and went to Wrightsville Beach and had a fantastic day on the water. I love swimming in the ocean, nothing beats being outside in the sun all day, it was a little chilly but it was so hot out that it totally felt refreshing. We spent the whole day there on the beach, we had a cooler with us with snacks to eat and beverages to drink. I brought a book to pass some time and he brought his iPod for music. We spent the day sunning, swimming and just having a plain good old time. We ate dinner is a beach front restaurant that was not going to mind that we were stinky from sweat and covered in sand, we got to eat outside and have the most freshest seafood there is.

The rest of the week we spent doing things that we each wanted to do. We would do one thing for me than the next thing was something that he wanted to do. The things that we did that were on my list was visited all things art. This wonderful town has so many little things to see that it would take a book to discuss everything that we did and didn’t get to see. This is one town that thrives in art and music. If you are a lover of one or both, I highly suggest taking a trip here.

My greatest dream is to be able to display my work in an art gallery. This is how you know that you have made it in the art world, when you can sell your work to a gallery and have people want to come look at it and buy it. More so than a museum, those are for the artists from long ago, a gallery is for the artists of today. To be displayed in a gallery shows you that you are a artist in demand. People crave your work and want more and more of it. You get to be in a museum in the future because people have craved your work for a long time.

I mentioned before that I sell my work at art fairs, this is a good start. I don’t sell a lot but I do have some repeat customers that come to the fairs to see what I have done. Now, I am not so big headed here to think they only come to see me, i’m sure they come because of other artist and of the whole idea of the fair but it is nice to know that there are people out there who believe in me enough to come back time and time again. There are also some people that have my studio number that will request work and I do that from time to time, no one’s breaking down the door or anything but it’s enough to keep me occupied. I like it better when the customer gives me a vague idea of what they want and let me use my knowledge to bring it to life as opposed to when they are so detailed in their description because then they are never truly happy with it. It will never look exactly how they picture it. It is always better to let the artist decides what will make the picture better.

I haven’t decided if I want to sell my pictures to a commercial market yet, I know that this is the best way to gt my name and work out there but I don’t think that I am ready for all that it will bring. There will many people who will be critical without fully knowing me or my work. I know that that will happen no matter what but you are never prepared enough for it when it happens. They way that I am set up now is that I have few customers coming back again and again. If someone new sees me at a fair or just happens to see my work at a friends house or some where like that and they don’t like it then I will never know and all is good. But going commercial, you are putting yourself out there for the whole world to see and I just don’t think that I am ready for that yet. Maybe when I am more confident in myself and my work then I will think about that, and I know that being in a gallery is the same concept but by then more people will want my work than not.

I try to hit up an art museum whenever I have an opportunity. These places are like a candy store to me, I could spend all day in them and that still would not be enough time. Whenever my husband and I go on vacation, I make sure that our schedule allows us to stop at the local art museum. I would like to see every museum in my life but I feel that is an unrealistic goal, so I’m settling for as least the big, major ones. I try to get the small ones in as much as my life allows but that is not always possible.

I would love to work for one but my credentials do not allow that possibility. One would think that being an artist would give you a leg up but I have found out that you need a lot of schooling and degrees to be able to work at museums. They take their work so serious as they should, they have a very important job. The items that museums are able to get their hands on just amaze me. I gather so much inspiration from the art that is there, it’s almost overwhelming. Almost. I bring a notebook with me just for notes on the various artists and work. My favorite artist is George Inness. He was an American artist born in the 1800s. My favorite piece of his is Harvest Moon. You don’t see him often at museums, some will have his work but they will never be a whole display wing with his name. That’s alright because there will never be a display wing at any museum with my name on it!

I cannot explain why his works speaks to me the way it does but I am moved by his pictures. It could be because he was apart of the Tonalist art movement and I love many paintins from that period. The Tonalism art movement started in the last 1800s and it consisted of using dark, neutral hues and tones in the pictures, it gave the paintings a look of a misty atmosphere. It could also be considered moody or shadowy, in my opinion this made the paintings stand out in a way that other paintings did not, it gave the paintings new meanings and feelings. I try to create such paintings however I feel my talents fall short of these other great artists.there are other artist at museums that were part of this art movement but George is my favorite and I wish that he was a more popular artist and more people could experience him in the same way that I do. I guess though that people get different things out of paintings, we could see the same painting and get a different meaning from it, that is also why I love art. It’s the same for artist as well, that we get different interpretations from the same artists. So maybe other people wouldn’t see George Inness in the same light that I do. Who knows?

I just to want to thank a sponsor of mine for this blog, Wood Floor Refinishing Novi, they have helped me so much and I just wanted to mention them and get them a shot out! Thanks guys!

We all have created art in our lives whether we realize it or not. That is the greatest thing about art. It can be anything. Anything that comes to your mind and you create it, it becomes art. From a masterpiece like David to a simple stick man and his family. It is all art. Anyone can do this, some may be better than others at it but that should never stop any of us from creating art.

Art is universal, when people from one country create something, people from other country’s can enjoy it just the same. We may interpret it different from others but we all will get something out of it. That is the beauty of art. From one piece you can achieve multiple feelings from it. That is one of the many reasons that I love art.

For landscapes I prefer to use a canvas and easel. I take it outside and set it up in front of the place that I have chosen to paint, grab my stool and my tools and I create. I can never finish it in just one day and that is the beauty of landscape, I start off with one idea of what I want but as the days go and I haven’t finished, the idea change because the scene has change. One day it could be sunny, the next cloudy and that makes a difference on what my picture looks likes. Even though I am painting the same scene my picture may look different from the real thing because I let my mood and the weather determine what the picture looks like and since it takes me a couple days to finish, depending on how long I spend each day, sometimes it will take me a week to finish. My picture changes on a daily basis but the end result is always amazing to me.

I have sold some of my pieces at local art fairs when they come to town. Not nearly enough to quit my job and become rich and famous but enough to still encourage to continue going to them. I would much rather sell to an art gallery and have them do the dirty work but until that time comes I am stuck with the art fairs. Not that they are that bad, I will share a booth with a fellow artist to cut down the cost of renting the booth by myself that way we can make more profit. The cost of the booths are not that expensive but I don’t sell my pictures for very much and sharing a booth helps.

Well, that’s all I got for now, please post a comment on what you think, I crave feedback! Thanks